Taunton wastewater plant manager says water is clean

TAUNTON — Taunton’s wastewater treatment plant is managed and operated by Veolia North America, a division of France’s Veolia Water.

That relationship dates back more than 18 years, said Jonathan Mongie, project manager of the site, which sits on the banks of the Taunton River at the far end of the city’s Weir Village.

Mongie is responsible for an operation that includes four secondary clarifiers, six aeration tanks and a “solids building” — where solid waste is separated from water and turned into “sludge cake,” before being trucked to Taunton’s landfill on East Britannia Street.

Mongie said microorganisms eliminate the ammonia compound of nitrogen before the water is flushed into the river.

“That’s what the plant does very well,” he said, adding that the new terms of the EPA permit calls for elimination also of nitrite and nitrate compounds.

Water that’s been treated and cleaned of waste, Mongie said, now has a total nitrogen content of 15 milligrams per liter of fluid. The EPA, he said, wants to significantly reduce that ratio.

“They want us to get down to five milligrams in five years and three milligrams within 10 years,” he said.

The city’s treatment plant sits adjacent to a large mound of capped land that until the Clean Air Act of 1970 was where Mongie says solid waste was dumped and buried.

The Westport native said he’s convinced the treated water discharged round the clock into the Taunton River is clean and healthy.

Mongie, 47, says for at least the past few years seed clams have been pulled from the river and transported to the Westport River, where they grow into quahogs and little necks.

“That’s where I shellfish on the weekends. So for me it’s personal,” he said.